So, lots of questions here, lots of focus on minute detail. I apologize in advance.

Recently it's come to light that my player's group might be getting involved with the Ecclesiarchy in terms of politics, and I decided I should get a really good picture of how the Ecclesiarchy is structured. Problem is, going through all the sources I have has left me confused.

The Codex Imperialis, from the 2nd edition of 40k describes the structure as being one of priests or preachers down below, and senior priests can become a Pontifix, with authority over several parishes, but with several different designations, like a Pontifex Mundi controls a whole world, a Pontifex Urba controls a whole city, a Pontifex Astra controls the religious affairs of one or more starships.

Codex: Sisters of Battle expounds further on this, stating that there are Cardinals in control of dioceses, each one corresponding to a single important world, typically; there'd be a Cardinal of Cadia Prime, a Cardinal of Necromunda, a Cardinal of Mordia, so on and so forth. All of these Cardinals make up the Holy Synod on Terra, the ruling council of the entire Ecclesiarchy, and when the Ecclesiarchy dies a new one is elected by the Cardinals from among their number, just like the Pope of the real world Catholic Church.

Okay, but problem. The Imperium has countless worlds. Unspeakably vast number of worlds. Is it really at all believable that among the entire galaxy, there's no higher level of ecclesiastical authority between the Cardinals and the Ecclesiarch? How the hell would the Cardinals be able to get ahold of the Ecclesiarchy when a problem demanded their attention, among many thousands, perhaps millions of Cardinals? Even with a vast bureaucracy that'd be unfathomable. And just what the hell role does Ophelia VII play? It's supposed to be like a secondary capital, assisting in administration but also protecting the Ecclesiarchy from any one man becoming too powerful, but just what the hell does that mean?

Should there be intervening levels of authority? I was almost wondering if this would warrant another Ecclesiarchal official in charge of the Sector, and then another in charge of the Segmentum, five of them all subordinate directly to the Ecclesiarch. But what would those titles be? Things are also complicated by the inclusion of the title "Bishop" in the Dark Heresy book, as a higher rank for Clergy, just before Hierophant. I feel as though Bishop should be a title that actually gets used, likely as an intermediate between priests and the higher ups... but how?

Anyway, any ideas, suggestions? Anything you've read that shines light on this?

I'm not too familiar with this, but it seems somewhat Imperium-like to me for them to just elect cardinals from nearby, well-established areas, and appoint them as absentee-cardinals of the far reaches. From my understanding, the Emperor is nearly a myth on many worlds, and I can't imagine a cardinal needing to do much more with most places than be aware of their existance.

Besides, there's billions of planets out there, who cares how some backwater promethium miners think things should be run?

You'd be right in your assertion that there should (and are) intervening levels of authority, though how "official" these intervening levels are is uncertain. In DH pg 311, under Adaptus Ministorum, it is mentioned that most planets in the Calixis Sector have a Cardinal and these Cardinals make up the Sector Synod or Calixian Synod (which is mentioned elsewhere in the book as well) headed by the most senior Cardinal, Cardinal Ignato which is charged with overseeing the Calixis Sectors spiritual well-being. So, if a Calixian Cardinal has issues, he or she can't deal with alone, they'll bring it before the Calixian Synod and Ignato. From the way most of the rest of the Imperium is run, I would assume that Ignato would bring the matter, if necessary, before a Segmentum Synod (presumably composed of the most senior cardinals of each sector in the segmentum) which would take it to the Synod of Holy Terra (or possibly to Ophelia and from there to the Synod of Holy Terra). While they're all Cardinals, they, like everyone else in the Imperium, have a system of seniority, whether official or, more then likely, unofficial but in existence due to necessity and the fact that, generally speaking, the longer a cardinal has been a cardinal, the more political clout, favors, connections, and respect said cardinal would have (and I reckon ones planet, wealth, and political base would also have some bearing on this as well). Given the Imperium's shear size, even if, officially, all cardinals have a vote in the running of the Ministrum, they do such on a more local level. All the Calixian Cardinals would vote on matters in the Calixian Synod and Ignato would then take the majorities ruling before the Segmentum Synod and hopefully vote according to the majority vote in that Synod who's most senor and respected Cardinal would then take the majority vote from the Segmentum into the halls of the Synod of Holy Terra.

As for lesser titles, i think what ever those are would be dependant on what faction the clergy belongs to as the Ministrum is made up of many divergent cults all of which are collected under the umbrella heading of the Imperial Cult; kind of like, in the real world, the religion of Christianity being the umbrella term for many faiths which often contradict one another on various points. Different Christian faiths have different names for ranking clergy members and such seems to be true even in the singular religion of Catholicism (which the Ministorum seems to be heavily inspiered by, natch.).

AkumaKorgar said:

The background for the Calixis Sector in Dark Heresy has one Cardinal above all others in charge of all Ecclesiarchal activities within the sector. With that in mind, I personally think of there as being the practical administrative level of Archdiocese, covering a sector of space in most cases (though in particularly populous sectors, it may only cover a subsector, and on Terra, where there are many dioceses, there may simply be a single Archdiocese for the planet), who would oversee the activities of all the other Cardinals of the worlds of his sector, as well as being in direct control of the diocese of his planet. Compared to the Cardinals of the pre-reformation Ecclesiarchy, they're still fairly modest individuals in terms of the power they wield (because each diocese is still self-governing and has its own Cardinal). These Cardinals (likely known by a variety of titles that vary from sector to sector) would generally be more politically prominent within the Adeptus Ministorum through their appointment to a greater role, even if most of the purpose of an Archdiocese is administrative (and thus more a matter for the legions of Deacons and Archdeacons who serve the administrative, rather than spiritual, roles within the Ecclesiarchy).

Ophelia VII essentially decentralises the power of the Ecclesiarchy, splitting it up to avoid it being concentrated too greatly in the hands of one man or too heavily in one place. Terra is still at the top of the pile, the Holy Synod making the big decisions, but the Synod Ministra on Ophelia VII scrutinises and challenges the Holy Synod in various matters of doctrine, as well as being home to half of the Orders of the Adepta Sororitas (Terra being home to the other half; with all the Orders having convents and missions scattered all over the Imperium), who are charged with maintaining the purity of the Ecclesiarchy amongst other things. If nothing else, having Ophelia VII as a second home for the Ecclesiarchy prevents the reigning Ecclesiarch from dominating the organisation utterly in the same way that Goge Vandire and his predecessors did (Vandire was particularly notable because he was also Master of the Administratum, and thus an exceptionally powerful man before he became Ecclesiarch).

maybe imperial cult is more like eastern orthodox churche s ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Christianity#Eastern_Orthodox_Churches

Unlikely, even if only because High Gothic is obviously supposed to be like Latin, as opposed to the Greek used by the Eastern Orthodox churches.

Thanks for your input though guys, between your comments on the Calixian Synod (which somehow I missed, is that in Dark Heresy?) and the nature of Ophelia VII I think I finally got this figured out. Awesome!

In the case of the tabletop game, the actual heirarchy mattered very little (since they all had similar stats and abilities). Because of this, I'd probably toss out most of the "canon" on the topic and base the hierarchy on the Catholic Church.

Ecclesiarch - the Voice of the Emperor, His Holiness.

Cardinals - the advisors and electors of the Ecclesiarch, generally preside over multiple sectors.

Archbishops/Archconfessors - the highest authority that most citizens of the Imperium can hope to see in their lives, generally preside over a populous system or an entire sector.

Bishops/Confessors - Generally preside over a single planet (or an area of a particularly populous planet), though Bishops relegated (i.e., exiled) to especially underdeveloped area will often preside over multiple sparsely populated planets.

Prelates - Preside over a number of priests and ensure their teachings are based in the holy Lecticio Divinatus and the teachings of His Holiness, the Ecclesiarch.

Priests - Preside over a single congregation or company of soldiers (though particularly pious citizens and soldiers may have a priest for groups as small as a single platoon)

There are myriad titles assigned to the adepts and servants of the Ecclesiarchy, though they generally correspond to the above mentioned titles or are in addition to them. The title of Primate , for example, applies to the Bishop of the diocese that first accepted the Light of the Emperor during the Great Crusade or other crusade.

Bishops, Archbishops, and Cardinals are also divided into their respective Synods or councils - being based either on Terra or Ophelia VII - and will occasionally be gathered to said place to discuss matters of special significance to the faith (though such grand meetings will generally only happen a handful of times in the lifetimes of these Ecclesiastical leaders).

In terms of authority, a Space Marine Chaplain is roughly equivalent to a Bishop, while the ranks of Canoness and Master of Sanctity are roughly equivalent to an Archbishop. In the case of Space Marines, however, such "ranks" are recognized only as a formality, as most members of the Ecclesiarchy are wary of the heretical doctrines of the Space Marine Chapters.

Not canon by any means, but something like it would certainly help to clarify things.

I like almost all that has been said here, but I would like to point out the vast Fudal nature of the Empire. What I ahve read about the Cult of the Emperor is that it is vast and deverse. The popular beliefes on one planet might be considered heritical on another planet. (Witch hunters Codex) the Vast size of the empire means that those who hold emperial power may have a great deal of total power becasue their influence spans so many planets and people, but their actual control over those under their authority is actually pretty weak. In effect their actual authority really only extends to their immidiate subordinates, and they rely on their subordiants to extend the authority further down.

Think the Catholic church durring the dark ages. Travel and communication between the vast extend of christendom was so slow that not only would your average peasant in England not even know the name of the pope, but your average Friar might not either.

Remember that the 40K world was designed to fost miscomunication, mistrust and war. This is no more true than in the way the church is set up.

The Vandire Heresy...

Yes, the structure is there because they wanted to limit the power of one single man, although I believe there is still one Ecclesiarch.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Vandire

In a nutshell, during the Age of Apostasy, Goge Vandire was the Master of the Administratum and somehow manipulated the Ecclesiarch, later killing him and making himself Ecclesiarch. He was a complete megalomaniac and all around nutter of the Caligula variety. "Reign of Blood" nuff sed?

So, after deposing this guy, the Imperium limited the power of the Ecclesiarchy. One of the ways was to declare that they could have no men under arms. This was supposed to deprive them of a military wing, but just birthed the Sororitas, who are all women. Nice technicality, eh?

Sebastian Thor became the Ecclesiarch, diocese became smaller, increasing the number and reducing the power of Cardinals, and they moved the See to Ophelia VII.

"Ophelia VII essentially decentralises the power of the Ecclesiarchy, splitting it up to avoid it being concentrated too greatly in the hands of one man or too heavily in one place. Terra is still at the top of the pile, the Holy Synod making the big decisions, but the Synod Ministra on Ophelia VII scrutinises and challenges the Holy Synod in various matters of doctrine, as well as being home to half of the Orders of the Adepta Sororitas (Terra being home to the other half; with all the Orders having convents and missions scattered all over the Imperium), who are charged with maintaining the purity of the Ecclesiarchy amongst other things. If nothing else, having Ophelia VII as a second home for the Ecclesiarchy prevents the reigning Ecclesiarch from dominating the organisation utterly in the same way that Goge Vandire and his predecessors did (Vandire was particularly notable because he was also Master of the Administratum, and thus an exceptionally powerful man before he became Ecclesiarch)."

Well, actually the move to Ophelia VII was not to reduce the power of the Ecclesiarchy, but to keep the High Lords from influencing them and keeping them out of their business (like Goge Vandire did). The Ecclesiarch can dominate the Ecclesiarchy all he/she wants, but no longer can the Ecclesiarch dominate the Administratum or vice-versa. It wasn't the Ecclesiarchy's fault per se, although they were the ones punished in the end. Religious zealots! Gotta luv 'em.

The problem occurred because the Adeptus Terra of which the Administratum is a part, forced their control over the Ecclesiarcy and abused it's power, not the other way around.

Minor technicality which doesn't really address the OP's question...sorry!